This invention relates to lamps with a protective envelope coating and, more particularly, to a protective coating for flashlamps and a method for applying such a coating.
A typical photoflash lamp comprises an hermetically sealed glass envelope, a quantity of combustible material located in the envelope, such as shredded zirconium or hanfium foil, and a combustion supporting gas, such as oxygen, at a pressure well above one atmosphere. The lamp also includes an electrically or percussively activated primer for igniting the combustible to flash the lamp. During lamp flashing, the glass envelope is subject to severe thermal shock due to hot globules of metal oxide impinging on the walls of the lamp. As a result, cracks and crazes occur in the glass and, at higher internal pressures, containment becomes impossible. In order to reinforce the glass envelope and improve its containment capability, it has been common practice to apply a protective lacquer coating on the lamp envelope by means of a dip process. To build up the desired coating thickness, the glass envelope is generally dipped a number of times into a lacquer solution containing a solvent and a selected resin, typically cellulose acetate. After each dip, the lamp is dried to evaporate the solvent and leave the desired coating of cellulose acetate, or whatever other plastic resin is employed.
In the continuing effort to improve light output, higher performance flashlamps have been developed which contain higher combustible fill weights per unit of internal envelope volume, along with higher fill gas pressure. In addition, the combustible material may be one of the hotter burning types, such as hafnium. Such lamps, upon flashing, appear to subject the glass envelopes to more intense thermal shock effects, and thus require stronger containment vessels. One approach to this problem has been to employ a hard glass envelope, such as the borosilicate glass envelope described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,506,385, along with a protective dip coating. Although providing some degree of improvement in the containment capability of lamp envelopes, the use of dip coatings and hard glass present significant disadvantages in the areas of manufacturing cost and safety. More specifically, the hard glass incurs considerable added expense over the more commonly used soft glass due to both increased material cost and the need for special lead-in wires to provide sealing compatibility with the hard glass envelope. In addition, even though more resistant to thermal shock, hard glass envelopes can also exhibit cracks and crazes upon lamping flashing, and, thus, do not obviate the need for a protective coating.
In the typical solvent dipping process for applying protective coatings, a large number of flashlamps are loaded on a rack and then successively dipped in a solvent solution and oven dried three or four times to build up the desired coating thickness. Such a process is time consuming, uses a relatively large area of production floor space, and involves considerable hand labor, all of which add significantly to manufacturing cost. Further, as the lacquer solution includes a highly flammable solvent, such as acetone, an inadvertant flashing of one of the lamps in either the dip bath or drying oven can ignite the solvent fumes. To substantially reduce or eliminate this hazard, costly automatic extinguishing equipment must be employed. In the event of a solvent ignition, the resulting downtime and consumption of fire extinguishing chemical also adds to the manufacturing cost.
Another approach to providing a more economical and improved containing vessel is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,797, wherein a thermoplastic coating, such as polycarbonate, is vacuum formed onto the exterior surface of the glass envelope. The method of applying the coating comprises: placing the glass envelope within a preformed sleeve of the thermoplastic material; drawing a vaccum in the space between the thermoplastic sleeve and the glass envelope; and, simultaneously heating the assembly incrementally along its length, whereby the temperature and vacuum cause the thermoplastic to be incrementally formed onto the glass envelope with the interface substantially free of voids, inclusions and the like. This method provides an optically clear protective coating by means of a significantly faster, safer and more economical manufacturing process, which may be easily integrated on automated production machinery.